Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

5. Department of Homeland Security · Notable

Require rejected benefit applicants to leave the U.S. immediately

Not started

146 5. Department of Homeland Security

“At least until USCIS is caught up on all case backlogs, all applicants rejected for any benefit or status adjudication should be required to leave the U.S. immediately.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    No requirement that rejected applicants leave the United States immediately was found. DHS did make non-departure expensive — the 2025-06-27 interim final rule sets civil penalties for aliens who fail to depart voluntarily or after a final removal order — but penalizing people already under removal orders is not the on-denial departure requirement this Quote describes.

    No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Instrument sought: a USCIS policy requiring applicants denied a benefit to depart immediately.

Searched, in the federal records we keep (fetched 2026-08-28): presidential documents, final rules, proposed rules and notices in the Federal Register, filtered to DHS and its components; bills in Congress and public laws, from congress.gov; White House presidential actions; and federal court dockets (CourtListener), including the bulk snapshot of 1.2 million dockets. No such policy was found on an allowlisted source. USCIS’s practice of issuing Notices to Appear on denial is reported but not documented in any allowlisted Primary record we read, and an NTA begins removal proceedings rather than requiring immediate departure.

  • Unified Agenda, 2026-09-01. DHS’s full Unified Agenda (the 2026 agenda, 59 RINs) was read at reginfo.gov rather than the abbreviated Federal Register version. Nothing on it requires a denied applicant to depart. The nearest entry is RIN 1653-AA96, Imposition and Collection of Civil Penalties for Certain Immigration-Related Violations, ICE, Final Rule Stage, which fines people who fail to depart after a final removal order or a voluntary-departure period — a different population from applicants denied a benefit, and a penalty rather than a departure requirement. Its interim final rule already published on 2025-06-27 (2025-11965), so its Status would come from that document and not from the agenda in any event. Subject area, not this ask’s object. https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=202510&RIN=1653-AA96
  • The final rule, 2026-10-14. That RIN is now final. Imposition and Collection of Civil Penalties for Certain Immigration-Related Violations (FR 2026-21024, 2026-10-14) finalizes the 2025-06-27 IFR with one change, late appeals for documented mail delays. Its population is still people under a removal order or a voluntary-departure period, or apprehended entering. Applicants denied a benefit are not in it, so the Status stays not started. It is recorded as an event on #1573.
Action
restrict
Object
rejected USCIS benefit applicants
ID
342